Posts by Missy Yearian

Once
upon a time, a fella named Ridley Scott made a little film called
Alien.
It is universally agreed (or it should be if it isn't) that Alien
is only like the most awesome movie in the history of history, and a
wee bonny horror fan like myself had her brain broken on brown shag
carpeting in a living room in the Midwest many moons ago whilst
watching it.
That little girl horror fan grew up into a full-grown horror nerd,
but I have never stopped loving Alien.

And
then along came The
Terror Within.
This Roger Corman-produced Alien
wannabe has about twice the sleaze and half the scares, and while the
mostly educated, judgmental little feminist in me might have a
problem with that, I can't help but say the movie is a damn good
time-despite its many faults.
Of course, if you're going to enjoy it, you have to view it with the
right attitude.(read more...)

It's
a traditional criticism of the modern horror film that the world
represented is sexist in nature. It's a simplistic argument, but
one that a surface-level analysis of most horror films would confirm.
After all, don't most depict women in peril -- from Halloween
to The
Texas Chain SawMassacre
to Suspiria?
While it might seem like the most obvious of possible assessments,
what this criticism fails to recognize are the areas in which the
horror genre upends conventional depictions of women as
victims.(read more...)

Some years ago (before I became fully
entrenched in the horror world), my father mentioned The Last
House of the Left (1972). He didn't tell me what it was about
or whether or not he even liked it. He just told me I should see it.
Naturally, Best Friend and I went to the video store post haste.
(It is a fervent belief of mine that watching a film like this on VHS
is better than watching it on DVD.) We pulled the tape out of its
translucent plastic case and popped it into the VCR. And it was an
experience unlike any I'd had up to that point.(read more...)

Of his 1988 film Dead Ringers, David Cronenberg said, "It has to do with that element of being human. It has to do with that ineffable sadness that is an element of human existence." This statement is entirely true. His film manages to simultaneously question and confirm the humanity and weaknesses of its central characters; however, Cronenberg's assessment of his own film is surprisingly reductive. Upon closer investigation, Dead Ringers seems to be about so much more. It's a complicated discussion of identity-how we come to understand ourselves, what defines us, and ultimately, what destroys us.(read more...)

I'll begin today's discussion with
what I consider a statement of fact: Dracula is boring. That
may be the most unpopular statement I will ever write, but I
wholeheartedly believe it. How lucky are we, then, that twenty-five
years before this abomination was published we were all blessed with
another Irish vampire tale? Yes indeedy, I am talking about Joseph
Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla. This sweetly concise and
beautiful novella (or short story, as some prefer to call it) was
published in 1872 and spawned an entire subgenre of horror: the
lesbian vampire tale.(read more...)

There is really nothing I like more on
a chilly, rainy evening than sitting down with some of my best pals.
Of course, as these pals usually consist of murderers and madmen, I
like to keep them safely trapped on screen. They wield knives and
axes and machetes and chainsaws from the safety of the little box
that sits atop my chest of drawers. I sit on the bed directly across
from them shivering-just a little-in my oh-so-jaded boots. There
aren't a lot of films that can actually make me shiver in these old
boots, but when I find one, I hold on for dear life. I make sure the
experience of watching is sacred, and I don't mess around with
those little brats who laugh through some Fulci-style ocular terror. (read more...)